Moorfields Eye Hospital

About: Moorfields Eye Hospital is a healthcare organization based out in London, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Visual acuity & Glaucoma. The organization has 3721 authors who have published 6790 publications receiving 246004 citations.

Interference with Performance of a Response Selection Task that has no Working Memory Component: An rTMS Comparison of the Dorsolateral Prefrontal and Medial Frontal Cortex

Abstract: It has been suggested that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) is involved in free selection (FS), the process by which subjects themselves decide what action to perform Evidence for this proposal has been provided by imaging studies showing activation of the DLPFC when subjects randomly generate responses However, these response selection tasks have a hidden working memory element and it has been widely reported that the DLPFC is activated when subjects perform tasks which involve working memory The primary aim of this experiment was to establish if the DLPFC is genuinely involved in response selection We used repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to investigate whether temporary interference of the DLPFC could disrupt performance of a response selection task that had no working memory component Subjects performed tasks in which they made bimanual sequences of eight nonrepeating finger movements In the FS task, subjects chose their movements at random while a computer monitor displayed these moves This visual feedback obviated the need for subjects to maintain their previous moves "on-line" No selection was required for the two control tasks as responses were cued by the visual display The attentional demands of the control tasks varied In the high load (HL) version, subjects had to maintain their attention throughout the sequence, but this requirement was absent in the low load (LL) task rTMS over the DLPFC slowed response times on the FS task and at the end of the sequence on the HL task, but had no effect on the LL task rTMS over the medial frontal cortex (MFC) slowed response times on the FS task but had no effect on the HL task This suggests that a response selection task without a working memory load will depend on the DLPFC and the MFC The difference appears to be that the DLPFC is important when selecting between competing responses or when concentrating if there is a high attentional demand, but that the MFC is only important during the response selection task

Estimating the rate of progressive visual field damage in those with open-angle glaucoma, from cross-sectional data

Abstract: PURPOSE. To estimate the rate of visual field progression in open-angle glaucoma (OAG) subjects, by using data from population-based cross-sectional studies. METHODS. Subjects with OAG were identified in nine surveys of randomly sampled populations using standard criteria for glaucomatous optic neuropathy. Subjects were of European, African, Chinese, and Hispanic ethnicity. The measure of OAG damage was the mean deviation (MD) of an automated visual field test (Humphrey Field Analyzer; Carl Zeiss Meditec, Inc., Dublin, CA). The rate of progression was the mean of all subjects' damage in the worse eye divided by an average time since onset. Time since onset was estimated from age-specific prevalence rates. RESULTS. A total of 1066 subjects with OAG contributed visual field data. The mean worsening in decibels per year was: European-derived, -1.12; Hispanic, -1.26; African-derived, -1.33; and Chinese -1.56 (difference among ethnicities, P = 0.16). The mean duration of disease was lowest among Chinese persons at 10.5 years (95% CI: 8.8-12.6) and was highest in African-derived subjects at 15.4 years (95% CI: 14.6-15.9). The progression rate was not consistently related to age or gender. By combining disease duration and progression rate, the model predicted that 15% or fewer of the worse eyes would reach the end of the field damage scale in the patient's lifetime. CONCLUSIONS. The estimates of typical worsening per year in the worse eye among subjects with OAG suggested slightly more rapid progression than in some clinic-based studies. The rate did not differ significantly by ethnicity or gender, but was worse in those with known, treated OAG and in pseudophakic subjects.

Evidence of association of APOE with age-related macular degeneration: a pooled analysis of 15 studies.

Abstract: Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the most common cause of incurable visual impairment in high-income countries. Previous studies report inconsistent associations between AMD and apolipoprotein E (APOE), a lipid transport protein involved in low-density cholesterol modulation. Potential interaction between APOE and sex, and smoking status has been reported. We present a pooled analysis (n = 21,160) demonstrating associations between late AMD and APOe4 (odds ratio [OR] = 0.72 per haplotype; confidence interval [CI]: 0.65-0.74; P = 4.41×10(-11) ) and APOe2 (OR = 1.83 for homozygote carriers; CI: 1.04-3.23; P = 0.04), following adjustment for age group and sex within each study and smoking status. No evidence of interaction between APOE and sex or smoking was found. Ever smokers had significant increased risk relative to never smokers for both neovascular (OR = 1.54; CI: 1.38-1.72; P = 2.8×10(-15) ) and atrophic (OR = 1.38; CI: 1.18-1.61; P = 3.37×10(-5) ) AMD but not early AMD (OR = 0.94; CI: 0.86-1.03; P = 0.16), implicating smoking as a major contributing factor to disease progression from early signs to the visually disabling late forms. Extended haplotype analysis incorporating rs405509 did not identify additional risks beyond e2 and e4 haplotypes. Our expanded analysis substantially improves our understanding of the association between the APOE locus and AMD. It further provides evidence supporting the role of cholesterol modulation, and low-density cholesterol specifically, in AMD disease etiology.

Analysis of lymphoedema-distichiasis families for FOXC2 mutations reveals small insertions and deletions throughout the gene

Abstract: Lymphoedema-distichiasis (LD) is a dominantly inherited form of primary lymphoedema with onset of lower limb swelling at puberty or later. There is variable penetrance of this disorder, but the most consistently inherited feature is distichiasis, viz. fine hairs arising inappropriately from the meibomian glands. We established linkage of this disorder to 16q24.3 and the gene has recently been identified as the forkhead transcription factor FOXC2. We report the mutational analysis of 14 families with LD. All but one of these pedigrees have small insertions or deletions in the gene, which seem likely to produce haploinsufficiency. The mutation sites are scattered throughout the gene. There is one family with a mis-sense mutation in the forkhead domain of the protein. This base alteration is not a common polymorphism, is co-inherited with the disease and produces a non-conservative amino acid change.